From James Madison to James Monroe and William Pinkney, 11 July 1806
To James Monroe and William Pinkney
Department of State 11 July 1806
Gentlemen
The enclosed papers, respecting the practices of British traders with the Indians, to instigate them against the United States, were received through General Wilkinson.1 They exemplify so strikingly the inconvenience of the intercourse with the Indians as it is now established by the treaty, that I have thought them a necessary supplement to my letter of the 30 May last.2 I have the honor to be, Gentlemen, with very great respect, Your most obed. servt.
James Madison
RC and enclosures (NN: Monroe Papers). RC in Wagner’s hand, signed by JM; docketed by Monroe. For enclosures, see n. 1.
1. The enclosures were 1) a 20 May 1806 letter from Capt. James B. Many to James Wilkinson (4 pp.), reporting that on a recent expedition to Prairie du Chien, he had succeeded in identifying a fort site at the confluence of the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers and in ransoming two Osage boys from their captors but had encountered hostility from Indians under the influence of the North West Company; and 2) a summary (3 pp.), enclosed in Many’s letter, of an Indian council on the upper Mississippi, discussing communications from the North West Company that accused the U.S. government of promoting warfare between tribes, reported British officials’ refusal to do so, promised military aid from the British government and the North West Company if necessary, and declared “that all the Nations with whom the Americans had had intercourse, had uniformly suffered so much from sickness and disease, that they were becoming extinct, and that they felt themselves much vexed that they … should be subject to such a father as their American father has proved to be; and that if he should attempt or wish to do them ill, that they … would be justified in retaliating.” The summary was signed by Louis Grignon on 7 May 1806, before Prairie du Chien justice of the peace Harry Munro Fisher.